Day Off

Today is President's Day, the first day of the kids' winter vacation. Chris had to work today, but I have a paid holiday, and am enjoying spending the day with the kids. It's days like today that give me a great appreciation for stay-at-home moms and dads everywhere. This is no revelation to me; I've done this many times and to me it's a treat to spend a weekday with the kids - seems strange that this is such an unusual event. But it always strikes me that this is unusual to us because Chris and I both work full time, but to so many people it is normal, and to them maybe not such a treat. I'm not so sure how good I would be at this if I did it every day.

Here's how my day has gone so far:

8:00 - Wake up, shower, get dressed, get the kids dressed.

9:00 - Put dinner dishes away, make breakfast to a chorus of "I'm starving, where breakfast?". Eat breakfast. Clean up breakfast. Start dishwasher.

10:00 - Fold and put away laundry that got washed and dried this weekend, but now sits in huge piles - a task that normally seems to take us all week is relatively easy, and the kids are actually helping.

11:00 - Bundle the kids up (it's 15 degrees out) and take them to a local sledding hill about a mile away. There are some other people there but it's not crowded. We have lots of fun, until the kids realize that having to walk up the hill every time is so Old School and they like the tubing place that pulls you up the hill better. At least I saw smiles on their faces on the way down.

12:30 - A trip to Dunkin Donuts for hot chocolate on the way home where Emily declares: "America Runs on Dunkin'"

1:00 - Put away breakfast dishes. Make lunch. Eat lunch. Clean up lunch. Load dishwasher.

2:00 - While I was cleaning up after lunch both kids conveniently disappeared, but I didn't mind. Emily curled up on the couch in a blanket watching Fairly Odd Parents on TV and playing a hand-held Hangman game, occaisionally asking out loud to no one in particular "What's blank-A-blank-blank?" Michael went to his room to watch college basketball and play basketball himself with a plastic hoop hanging over his doorway. When he slam dunks, his body hits the door, creating a thud that can be felt through the entire house.

2:30 - After debating whether I should try to get some free time to myself by reading a book, catching up on some TV on the DVR, or playing some XBox, I decided that as soon as I started to enjoy the peace and quiet, the peace and quiet would abruptly come to an end. So, I decided to blog about this day and look back on it someday as a reminder of these rare days. Sure enough, the sound of my typing has attracted Michael from his basketball and here he stands, sweat dripping from his brow, correcting my grammer. Must be time to go start up a game of Clue or something. Chris will be home in no time, tomorrow we'll be back to trying to fit all this quality family time in between 5PM and 8PM.